Traceable Fonts at Dafont.com

It was time to update my watermark.  So I searched through my downloaded fonts and found one that is super cute, you can see it on the photo below. 

While working on this I was reminded of the website Dafont.  They have thousands of free fonts for you to choose from and download.  I had to do some YouTube searches to figure out how to get those fonts into my Word program, but I was able to pull it off.  It seemed complicated at first but now I just hit download, then open the zip file, click on the font file and then click install.  My computer puts the font right into my Microsoft word program.

Of course, fonts for photos are great but what I discovered was that they also had fonts for teaching.  They have dotted fonts that you can type, print and then have your student trace for writing practice. We wrote our first letters to Santa this way.  I had my son's dictate to me what they would like to say, I typed it out, printed it, and then they traced it. 

This one is called KG Primary Dots Lined Alt.  It comes in a set with all of the other KG Primary fonts.  But this one in particular caught my eye because it has the same lines as our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum.  The other fonts in this set have the more traditional 3 lines with the dashed line going down the middle.

When I first discovered these fonts I printed off a practice sheet with their name on it and laminated it so they could write and re-write their name with a dry erase marker.

Both of my boys are pretty good at writing at this point and don't necessarily need tracing practice.  But then I thought about cursive.  They haven't learned cursive quite yet but they are both curious about it.  The first cursive font I found was this one called ColeCarreira1.  I started typing it in Word and when I capitalized their name I was disappointed to find out that it did not have cursive capitals.  If I found the designer I could probably buy a more complete version of the font that would include capital letters in cursive.

The last font I found as I was searching today is not a dotted font for tracing but it looks like it is a complete cursive font.  This one could be good for finger tracing or for my son's to look at while they try to write it on their own.  It is called School Script Dashed.

Over time I am sure some of these fonts will no longer be available at Dafont, but others will take their place.  In fact, I found this one as I searched again today.  This one even has arrows giving directions on how to write.  It's called Life Lessons.

Quite a few of these were found under the category of "Script" and then "school".  Have fun, and good luck!

www.dafont.com